Presidential honor

You know it's a special moment when someone shakes hands with the President of the United States. And it's even more meaningful when that president puts a medal around the person's neck.

You know it's a special moment when someone shakes hands with the President of the United States. And it's even more meaningful when that president puts a medal around the person's neck.

Both happened Monday for Stockton native and author Maxine Hong Kingston, who received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.

The award confirmed what many in her hometown, around the country, and around the world have known for years: Hong Kingston is a gifted, visionary artist whose words have deep meaning.

Consider some of those words:

» "In a time of destruction, create something."

» "This is the most important thing about me - I'm a card-carrying reader. All I really want to do is sit and read or lie down and read or eat and read or sit and read. I'm a trained reader. I want a job where I get paid for reading books. And I don't have to make reports on what I read or to apply what I read."

» "Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people."

» "I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes."

» "We're all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we're alive together during the same moment."

Those and so many other lines from her works of literature entertain, enlighten, teach and inspire.

The 73-year-old honoree grew up the daughter of immigrants, Tom and Ying Lan Hong from China, and she attended Edison High School. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley, and embarked on a fascinating literary journey.

Many of her works, both fiction and nonfiction, helped chronicle the lives and experiences of Chinese immigrants in America.

She received her honor, along with a group including singer Linda Ronstadt and Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, in the East Room at the White House.

A White House statement about her award read: "Her novels and nonfiction have examined how the past influences our present, and her voice has strengthened our understanding of Asian American identity, helping shape our national conversation about culture, gender and race."

A Bay Area resident, her impact on Stockton goes well beyond visits to her hometown. An elementary school in the city bears her name.

Hong Kingston's introduction to literature also mirrors what must happen for any child to develop such a love. Her parents made reading a priority.

In a recent interview with the Oakland Tribune, Hong Kingston said: "My mother, she was constantly telling bedtime stories, myths and legends, operas. My father was a poet and had classical Chinese poetry memorized."

From that youthful start, a master of words evolved. Her thoughts are poignant and can be used as a prism with which to view the world. Consider this passage from her critically acclaimed "The Fifth Book of Peace":

"The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very idea of peace have to be invented, and invented again."

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